As 2015 comes to a conclusion, it’s a good time reflect on the year’s progress – celebrating the wins, thinking through the losses, and learning from both.
One specific reflection of late regards this blog: I’ve looked back at the 58 pieces that were posted on the LifeSciVC blog in 2015, either from me or from a set of Atlas’ entrepreneurs in the From The Trenches feature. I thought it may be of value to readers to see a curated list of ten of the posts that were “most engaging” to this blog’s overall audience (either by numbers of visits, time on site, or dialogue thereafter).
Here are five of the most engaging blog posts from 2015, ordered by date:
- Venture-Backed Biotech Today: Reflections On Exits, Funding, and Startup Formation (Jan 2015). Explores the favorable IPO and M&A environment in place a year ago, the diverse mix of investors participating in financings, and the lack of real growth in startup creation. Related post from July 2015 covers these topics in further depth (here).
- Where Does All That Biotech Venture Capital Go? (Feb 2015). Examines the BIO report on venture capital funding into biotech by disease area and stage; interesting trends and nuances in the flow of funding. Complimented by the full report in summer 2015 (here).
- External Innovation: Force Multiplier for R&D (June 2015). Highlights the importance of external R&D strategies for Big Pharma, beyond merely accessing assets; in particular the cultural impact of bringing the outside into the core of an R&D organization.
- A Leadership Imperative: Getting More C-Level Women In Biotech (Sept 2015). Tackles the critical issue of talent and women in leadership roles, with accompanying blog by Rosana Kapeller (here).
- Psychology and Physiology of the Biotech Markets Today (Oct 2015). Provides some context to the biotech markets and investor sentiment after the punishing 27% drop in the NASDAQ Biotech Index in the 3Q 2015.
To focus on refreshing with older material, I’ve left out three recent posts from the above list that also had great reader engagement (Celgene’s BD strategy, gene & cell therapy’s outside-in development, and a decade’s changes to venture creation).
Here are five of “From The Trenches” posts with high levels of engagement from 2015, also ordered by date:
- Infusing Biotech With Young Blood (Jan 2015). Atlas’ superstar Principal, Michael Gladstone, takes a shot at the age-bias in our industry and why we need to take more chances by putting youth into biotech leadership roles.
- Better Living Through T-cells (Feb 2015). Unum CEO Chuck Wilson describes the state of the field in engineered T-cell therapies, some of the challenges and potential solutions. Very timely given the excitement in that space, and Unum’s progress in the clinic.
- Five Questions To Ask Your Investors Before You Take Their Money (April 2015). Mike Gilman, Padlock’s CEO, opines on the inside baseball questions you want to know about your investors.
- From Crawl to Sprint: The Race to Treat NASH (May 2015) and Setting The Pace In The Race To Treat NASH (Dec 2015). Pair of great posts by Nimbus CSO, Rosana Kapeller, outlining the dynamics of the NASH field today and the development of new therapeutics.
- A Biotech New Year’s Resolution (Dec 2015). RaNA CEO Ron Renaud steps back and reflects on how biotech’s great advances are being overwhelmed by negativity about the drug business – and resolves to fight the good fight.
We are hoping to expand the roster of “From The Trenches” writers to a few more Atlas’ entrepreneurs in 2016. More later on that.
One final reflection: this blog has been going for almost five years, and am always on the look out for good, relevant, substantive topics. I’d welcome readers’ input on this – what they find most valuable or interesting, or topics I’ve not covered that may be worth covering – so feel free to reach out via email or the comment section below.
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2016!